Knights, Puzzles, and Hypermodels
I, being a huge nerd, am a fan of logic puzzles. One of the most famous ones is "Knights and Knaves": you have a bunch of statements from people, where...
Why I Still Use Vim
The Stack Overflow blog recently published Modern IDEs are magic. Why are so many coders still using Vim and Emacs? Posts about Vim vs Emacs vs IDEs are...
No, your clean code won't save the planet
Need to channel my election anxiety into something productive, so here you go. One baffling trend I'm seeing recently is people trying to moralize virtuous...
Programs Writing Programs
New Essay Two workers are quadratically better than one. I shared a first draft of this a couple weeks back; this time it didn't change a whole lot aside...
TLA+ Helped Me Count to Six
The TLA+ Workshop is done! I'm taking November off from workshops do complete three writing goals: Feedback from the first draft of the Crossover Project is...
The Pendulum Swings Eternal
I shouldn't have had a newsletter this week because of the TLA+ workshop, but I forgot to say "no newsletter this week" last week so guess what, extra...
Edge Case Poisoning
TLA+ Workshop Last Call The TLA+ workshop is next week! Oct 20-22, register here, use the code COMPUTRONSTUFF for $500 off. Learn how a few hours of...
We have met the Excelnemy and he is us
Workshop The TLA+ workshop is in just two weeks! Oct 20-22, register here, use the code COMPUTRONSTUFF for $500 off. Still three slots left for the workshop!...
Mystery Knowledge
Mystery Knowledge In the misty past of 2019, when I was still giving conference talks, I always meditated for 5-10 minutes before starting. Arrive early, set...
Software Engineers Don't Have Disciplines
I know I said no newsletter this week, between the Alloy workshop and my panicked rush to finish The Crossover Project, but I found this old abandoned essay...
Updates on the Crossover Project
No Newsletter Next Week I'll be teaching the Alloy workshop. Speaking of workshops… TLA+ Workshop TLA+ Workshop for October 20-22, 10 AM - 6 PM CST. 24 hours...
Write Notes for Your Code
New Essay Decision Table Patterns: How to write better decision tables and fix common issues. If you've wanted to try formal methods but weren't sure where...
That Time I Almost Joined a Software Cult
Alloy Workshop There's just one slot left for the Alloy Workshop! Use the code YARLSNARTH for $1200 off. Are We Engineers Toxx clause is still in effect: if...
Formal Specification Languages
Alloy Workshop Slots for the September 21st Alloy workshop are still available! Learn how to model domains in a way that finds the bugs for you, rather than...
Please read the paper before you comment
Each day on twitter there is one main character. The goal is to never be it— maple cocaine (@maplecocaine) January 3, 2019 Yesterday the main character of...
What's the Deal with Message Passing, Anyway
I'm back from the moving! Things are still a bit chaotic here but hopefully normal newsletter/essays/office hours should resume next week. Alloy Workshop...
New Essay and a Very Peculiar Optimization
New Essay J Notation as a Tool of Thought. Many of you already read it as a newsletter piece, but this new version is considerably expanded and has a lot of...
New Workshop, Test Inference
Delayed newsletter next week I'm moving Monday, so newsletter should go out Tuesday. This is entirely unrelated to why the newsletter was delayed this week,...
How knowing math helps you write better software
Projects Update TLA+ workshop last week went really well! I'm super happy with the current state of the workshop and while I'll still be making a bunch of...
Syntax highlighting is a waste of an information channel
No newsletter next week Running the TLA+ workshop. No way I'm gonna have any brainpower after that. Syntax highlighting is a waste of an information channel...